Just outside my back door, at the edge of my patio only about 10 feet away from the kitchen stove is a small bed of herbs that I use practically every day from Spring until first frost. The first herbs to be usable are a couple of varieties of chives and I particularly like fragrant garlic chives in this recipe.
Fresh biscuits of any kind are a fantastic addition to almost any meal and I still make them many times during the summer months, especially at barbeques where people just go mad for them. Once you get the hang of making good biscuits you can easily whip up a quick batch in about 10 minutes, which is no time at all to spend in order to bring such a great comfort food addition to a meal.
You can change up the herbs to suit individual meals and a little grated cheese makes a good addition too. These make a fantastic base for weekend brunch sandwiches like sausage and egg or as we recently used them in a very indulgent Scallops Benedict with Brown Butter Hollandaise.
Makes about 6 – 8 large biscuits,
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
In a food processor, blend together
2 cups all purpose flour
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pulse in:
1/3 cup very cold salted butter, cut in small cubes
Do not over incorporate the butter into the flour. Similar to making a flaky pastry, small pieces of butter should be visible in the flour.
Transfer this mixture from the food processor into a large mixing bowl and add:
3 tbsp chopped fresh chives
Toss together and make a well in the center. Pour in
1 cup buttermilk
Working very quickly with a wooden spoon, fold the dry mixture through the buttermilk, only until the flour disappears, then stop immediately. Drop the sticky dough onto a well floured counter top or bread board. Sprinkle the top of the dough with additional flour as well as flouring your hands to handle the dough. After folding it just a few times, I don’t even use a rolling pin for these biscuits, the dough is soft enough to pat it out gently with floured hands to a thickness of about 1 & 1/2 inches.
Using a large sharp biscuit cutter cut the biscuits out an place them well spaced out, on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. I recommend aluminum baking sheets because they tolerate the higher oven temperature without burning the bottom of the biscuits. An alternative to using a biscuit cutter is to form the dough into a round and simply cut it in wedges, like a pie. (As pictured.)
Bake in the 425 degree F preheated oven for about 10 minutes before lowering the temperature to 375 degrees F and baking for an additional 10-15 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits are evenly golden brown.
